Aussies face Web.Com Tour qualifying

2013 Dec 10

This Thursday, more than 150 2014 Web.Com Tour aspirants take to the fairways of the PGA West Stadium and Nicklaus Tournament Courses in La Quinta in California where the two layouts are to be used to decide those who earn the right to play the Web.Com Tour in 2014.

Amongst the list of entrants are seven Australasians. Steve Allan, Scott Hend, Michael Krywulycz, Peter Lonard, Daniel Popovic and Jake Younan-Wise who will be joined by New Zealand Mark Brown over the 108 holes with the leading 45 players earning various categories of status on the Web.Com Tour which gets under way in February.

Allan, Lonard, Krywulycz and Younan-Wise are in the field having graduated from the Second Stage two weeks ago while Popovic, Hend and Brown are there because of their positions on various money lists around the world.

There is to be no cut as nearly all players can expect some level of status in 2014 although those finishing inside the top 25 are clearly better off.

This will be the first year the new system aimed at players playing a season on the Web.Com Tour before graduating to the PGA Tour is put in place. This week's event is therefore is essentially a pathway to the 2015 PGA Tour.

The following from the PGA Tour's site spells out the various categories the field is playing for.

"¢ Category 2a: Winner and ties of the Web.com Tour Qualifying Tournament (Medalist) - exempt for the 2014 season and from peridoic re-order."¢ Category 4: Players finishing after the Winner and ties through tenth and ties position - exempt until the third periodic re-order of the 2014 season."¢ Category 4a: Players finishing after the tenth and ties position through forty-fifth and ties position - exempt until the second periodic re-order of the 2014 season."¢ Category 18: Players after the forty-fifth and ties position - conditional status for the 2014 season, alternating with seventy-sixth through the one hundredth (76-100) positions from the Web.com Tour Regular Season.

Qualifying for the 2016 Asian Tour begins this Wednesday at four venues in Thailand where nearly 500 hopefuls are entered in Stage One as they look to graduate to the Final Stage which gets under way on January 13th.

What must surely be the largest ever contingent of Australasian golfers to take on the final stage of qualifying for the Japan Golf Tour, today begin their quest for the right to play the lucrative tour in 2018.

Qualifying for the 2017 Web.Com Tour has completed 36 of its 72 holes and of the ten Australians attempting to play their way to status on what is effectively the feeder tour to the 2018 PGA Tour, only two are currently inside the top 45 who will advance on Sunday.